


Ghosting

by BillyTheLord



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Platonic Relationships, tommys revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 18:33:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30127062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BillyTheLord/pseuds/BillyTheLord
Summary: Tommys revival and his feelings on being left behind
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Ranboo & Tubbo
Kudos: 68





	Ghosting

Tommy stood on the raised wooden path cutting through the land, his gaze fixated on a distant spot, unseeing what's actually in front of him as he is too deep in thought. His hands shook slightly and his disheveled appearance added to the clear distress he was under. Slowly he raised his hand and ran it through his dirty hair, grimacing when it snagged on stray knots and turned his head to his and Tubbo’s bench smiling slightly at the familiar sight. He walked over, soft footsteps echoing on the wood path before sitting down to admire the sunset.

You don't get sunsets in the afterlife, or void, or purgatory as Ghostbur calls it. Tommy muses, he misses this. Seeing things, not so much feeling things though. Being brought back to life has its downsides and now it feels as though every touch is amplified and fiery with its pain. 

Tommy shifts uncomfortably in his seat, remembering Wilburs booming voice in his head as he sat here with Tubbo, feeling on top of the world after his win against Dream. Couldn't he go back there, and live in just that moment? Where things were uncomplicated and he actually thought bringing his brotherly figure back to life was a good idea, now he just dreads the thought of Wilbur being back amongst them. 

Tommy is so deep in thought, face pinched in concentration, that when a heavy hand falls down on his shoulder, a deep shock of pain coursed through him at the point of contact making him belt out a scream in surprise wheeling around to face a shocked Tubbo, slowly backing up with his hands up in mock surrender.

“Tommy! Tommy it's only me!” Tubbo exclaims, trying to calm the panicking boy.

Tommy clutches at his chest trying to calm his erratic breathing while the ringing aftershocks of pain still ring through his shoulder. His eyes are wide and full of fear barely recognizing his friend though the haze of anxiety clouding over him. 

“It's just me big man. Are you alright?” Tubbo asks. Hands still raised in a placating manner.

Tommy swallows uncomfortably and tries to find his voice, response coming out stiff and scratchy. “Yea sorry Tubbo, just… I wasn't expecting anyone to be behind me”.

Tubbo offers a small smile and gestures to the bench, silently asking to join him. Tommy nods jerkily turning back to face forward and avoiding eye contact with his friend while he sits gently next to him. The gentleness in all of Tubbos actions has Tommys eyes twitching in annoyance, feeling belittled. 

“You don't have to act so stiff with me alright? Act normal Tubbo” Tommy spits out, still avoiding his friends face but hears the scoff coming from him has him raising his head in surprise. 

“What was that for?” Tommy asks incredulously.

Tubbo just furrows his brows and shrugs “I'm not the one acting stiff. You literally jumped and screamed when I lightly touched your shoulder.” Tommy opens his mouth to protest but Tubbo barrels on. “You've been like that since, well since you came back. Avoiding me n’ all, being jumpy and angsty.”

“I am not the angsty one here, if anything you are!” Tommy shouts at his friend, a small smile forming on his face at the familiar banter between them. 

Tubbo huffs out a laugh, his fluffy light brown hair jostling at the movement. “Yea well out of anyone Ranboo is the angsty man.”

Tommys smile falls at the mention of the other teen his friend seems to spend all his time with. “Right, Ranboo” he says in a mocking tone which doesn't go unnoticed by Tubbo who raises an eyebrow. 

“Don't be rude Tommy, he's my husband now yea?” Tubbo sniffs out, nose pointed in the air trying to be overly dramatic to ease the tension between the two. “I'm allowed to get platonically married at 17. I think at least.” 

Tommy narrows his eyes, not accepting Tubbos attempt at joking with him. His fingers itch uncomfortably where they lie against the bench and he wishes he was alone in this moment. He never wanted Tubbo to go away before. Now it’s like his friend's presence brings up all the negative feelings swirling around in him, filling him with guilt and anxiety. Tommy looks back down, picking at his dirty fingernails before shrugging. 

“Well, at least you waited till I was dead before you replaced me.” Tommy knows he's being unfair saying this to Tubbo but he didnt feel like being fair. He felt like raging and being mean and spiteful to everyone around him. 

Tubbos shoulders raise in defensiveness and his eyes narrow. “Ranboo isn't a replacement for you, I can have two best friends” he rolls his eyes while holding up two fingers to further his point.

“What? No you can't, that's the whole point of a best friend, there's only one!” Tommy half shouts, voice squeaky, and gestures wildly as if the mere thought of Tubbo having more friends then just Tommy was just plain ridiculous. 

“Look Tommy-” Tubbo reaches his hand out slowly, trying to capture one of his friends' hands in his own before Tommy jerks back, eyes wide and terrified, his whole body turning in on itself as if to cower away from the friendly hand reaching out towards him. 

Tubbo slowly leans back away, hand dropping and suddenly his throat is tight and eyes watery, feeling the cold sting of rejection and the massive wall only growing between them ever since Tommys revival.   
“Tommy… please, talk to me. What happened?”

Tommy shudders, arms crossing over his torso to hold himself before choking out a broken “I can't” in a gasp, his head turning away and his gaze set firmly on the ground.

It's a tense and silent minute. Tubbo staring at his closed off friend, silently begging for an opening, anything at all that Tommy would give him. The air is icy and stagnant, the silence heavy and poignant with all the unsaid words between them. It's as if they both could feel the void of friendship between them, once warm and carefree now full of too much trauma and time grown apart to fill. Tommys feels tears threatening to fall and silently prays they wont and that he can hold it in, before they can fall from his eyes he hears Tubbo let out a pained sigh before getting up and walking away from the bench feet crunching on the grass, leaving Tommy alone. He sits there, almost paralzyed in that position as the night finally settles on the land and the night chill settles in his already ghostly cold bones.

It's later that next day, the sun shining a bit oppressively down on Tommy, while he should be hot he's still as cold as the dead, he stares up at his hotel (or Jack’s hotel? He's not even sure at this point, being too stressed and torn in every direction to focus on that particular betrayal). His neck is bent uncomfortably at the angle and his figure is stiff, tense at the view of the dark and depressing prison, just beyond his hotel that he just can't avoid looking at when trying to admire the build Samnook completed for him. Why did he pick such a shit place for a build anyways? He sighs before lowering his gaze quickly and turning to look at the new buildings near his property.

Seems like people were busy building while he was dead, Tommy thinks bitterly. He eyes the small cottage type building next to his, mouth screwing up like he tasted something sour, remembering that this is Tubbo and Ranboos hotel. Something they decided to do while he was busy rotting away in a tiny cell locked away with his worst enemy. 

Tommy can’t help the ugly jealousy bubbling up in him at the sight of the hotel. His guilt at being angry with his friend being smothered by the hot rage he feels at being so easily tossed aside. He died okay? And even if it was months for him, it was just two days for everyone else. Somehow people forgot and moved on in that tiny span of time. Sure there were giant statues of him all around his house but they felt wrong and mocking. People that exiled him and left him at the hands of Dream multiple times now felt like building a statue of him like he was some type of martyr, that his death wasn’t preventable and that all the mourning they had to do was a 12ft tall him on his own property, a place he didn't like people building on in the first place.

Tommy walks towards their hotel, eyeing it up, and hands clenching at his sides, frustrated at the building and his friends but feeling as though he is powerless at doing anything. He spots flowers, small purple round ones lining the outside and quickly remembers when he first came back a few days ago, and seeing Ranboo again, the tall dark figure standing along the prime path while Tubbo crouched behind his...husband looking at Tommy like he had seen a ghost. Which Tommy guesses he technically did, that didn't lessen the prick of pain at seeing his friend look at him like that though, like he was another sad Ghostbur.   
Ranboo had handed him one of these purple flowers then, an attempt at a peace offering Tommy guesses, but it didn't matter to him. Without thinking or any hesitation in his actions he struck his flint and steel and lit the flower up, within seconds it was ash on the ground and Ranboo stared disappointingly down at Tommy, like he had expected anything different from him. His fault Tommy muses, he didn't want any stinking flower, didn't ask for his house to be adorned in flowers either. Flowers couldn't take away his pain or fix his crumbling relationships with anyone.

Briefly Tommy saw the cottage, bright and engulfed in flames, just like the purple flower while he stood looking down at the smouldering building from his high rise hotel. He could do it, pour out his anguish in fire and let it burn it all up, try to burn away Tubbo and Ranboos friendship. He doubted that'll make him feel better anyways, that's what started all of this too. The burning of a mushroom house makes its appearance fleetingly in the back of his mind and Tommy shakes his head, face burning in shame at the thought of destroying yet another thing and yet again losing his best friend.

Tommy sharply turns away from the building and stocks back to his house, thoughts sour and dreary, a stark contrast to the bright and hot day.

It's later, after Tommy had visited Snowchester to recruit Tubbo and reluctantly recruited Ranboo too into his “killing Dream plan” a plan that they all know, even him, is half baked and not even likely to work at all. Tommy half suspects those two agreed so quickly because it meant he was focused on something and not drifting around with a sullen look on his face. Tommy remembers the massive mansion he had spotted in the outer section of Snowchester, a place Tubbo informs him that it is meant for Him and Ranboo and their family together. Tommy had barely even attempted to fight back his bubbling jealousy at the time and kept insisting that he was a main part of the plans, that he doesn't just get a room but that he is apart of the title, that the mansion is Tommy, Tubbo, and well fine, Ranboos too. Those two had just laughed him off, but still had a firm no for him. He eyes the massive building from one of the buildings in Snowchester he was currently waiting out in, he couldn't travel back home as it was nighttime and the area was teeming with mobs.

Tommy bitterly remembers when he could freely walk around, without fear of the mobs or any damage he would take, before when taking a hit felt like nothing in his strong armor. Now even with the diamond armor Tubbo gave him, even the lightest of touches was burning and tore him apart at his very seams, made his vision go black and his panic skyrocket. Thinking that he's back in the void with a slithery slightly unhinged Wilbur who would just whisper in his ear all the evil little things he's thought up in his time there.

Tommy shudders at that memory, hands coming up around him in a mock hug, repeating a mantra that has been ringing in his head since he came back, that Wilbur cant return, Wilbur with his ash and soot would burn down everything Tommy has attempted to build for himself, a sad burst of laughter comes out from, deep in his chest, his eyes watering up and the irony of it. WIlbur had destroyed things with explosions and fire and Tommy with his fire. They were just alike, might not be blood related but they sure were brothers in destruction. Tommy rubs at his eyes, trying to erase the tears streaming from them as he remembers his urge to burn down Tubbos building, the want was still there each time he laid eyes on it but he knew he couldn't do it. Couldn't keep down the path of Wilbur, disappoint and isolate himself even more before he ends back up in that awful black void. 

Tommy jumps at the door opening abruptly, he turns his head quickly attempting to hide the tears still falling down his face. 

“Tommy I've got some...oh” Tubbo trails off, the blanket he was holding in his hand limp against his side as he takes in his friend, whose shoulders were shaking and his hands hiding his face. Clearly have been caught crying.

“Oh Tommy, it’s.., it's alright big man.” Tommys tears only keep coming, his hands shake against his face in frustration at being caught so vulnerable but his heart breaks in two, desperately wanting the reassurance his friend could provide if he just let his walls down.

Tubbo slowly eases the door shut behind him and walks further into the room, stopping just short from Tommy, an awkward silence rising as Tommy clearly tries to calm himself down, face burning in embarrassment.

“I don't want to go back,” Tommy says quietly, biting his lip and keeping his hands firm against his face. “I close my eyes and I'm back there Tubbo, in that awful place with Wilbur or in that jail cell with Dream and I’m.. I’m so terrified” The tears are now building up, big salty glops of them running down his blotchy red face as he uncontrollably shakes.

Tubbos' own eyes feel itchy against the need to cry with his friend, to share his pain. He wrings his hands through the blanket and tries to offer silent reassurance as Tommy clearly tries to get out the thoughts that have been plaguing him. 

“He beat me to death Tubs, it hurt so much and it still does, dying felt like being torn apart at the very soul and hastily put back together and I don't feel right and I’m so cold all the time, and I just want to feel something that isn't painful” Tommy gulps out through choking breathes.

“Then let me hug you Tommy” Tubbo says, his eyes wide and hands open in an invitation. “I want to help you, and If the last thing you felt was pain then I want to replace it with a hug, from your best friend” Tubbo smiles gently.

Tommy slowly lowers his hands and turns to face tubbo, chest still heaving as he shakes. He edges close to Tubbo, the heat radiating off of his friend exactly what he needs to warm his cold bones, he's been so cold.

“Your best friend..?” Tommy asks hesitantly.

“The one and only”.

With that, Tommy lets himself be wrapped up in Tubbos gentle embrace, his hands coming up around Tommys back along with the soft wool blanket. At first Tommy is ridged, expecting blinding pain but is only met with a soft and warm feeling, something close to the word Home. He falls into Tubbos hold, feeling as though all the weight he carried from his revival lifted off of him and the only thing that matters that night was the warm embrace the two friends had for each other, only filled with everything good and that the pain had nowhere to take hold of.

The fire in the health crackled softly as Tommy leaned his head back slightly, sniffing and smiling down at Tubbo who was staring up at his friend softly.

“Okay fine Ranboo can be your best friend too” Tommy jokingly says. Tubbo bursts out laughing and the heavy mood is instantly lifted. 

“I knew you liked him!” Tubbo says excitedly. 

Tommy rolls his eyes but the smile stays on his face, growing wider by the second. “Don't get too ahead of yourself now. If you two divorce I get the mansion”. 

Tommy and Tubbo share a laugh, neither of them wanting to leave the embrace they are in and while the outside night is cold and frosty, the atmosphere they are in is warm and inviting.

**Author's Note:**

> OK i had no plan for this i just wrote so its all kinda messy but whatever thats fine!
> 
> twitter is @canolebeans


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